Precious Illusions
by Nuttyginger
Summary: 10 years has passed since S3, the past has a way of catching up with you. *Rating = graphic scenes of a non-sexual nature


Disclaimer: They aren't mine but I wanna buy their rights...i'll make you an offer of...£2:40 and a white button! See my lawyer and we'll talk.  
Wrote this a while ago, when I was on a train from Inverness to Edinburgh and got stuck after a landslide...  
Dedicated: To the highland cows that kept me laughing when writing this!  
Set: After S3...but no Cordy Higher Being and no Angel in a box!  
Summary: 10 years has passed since S3, the past has a way of catching up with you.  
  
  
Perious Illusions  
by   
Nuttyginger  
  
I don't know why I am here. It's been so long since I visited this place. ten years exactly. Maybe that's why I'm here. Facing history, realising that I was allowed to move on unlike the 5 people in front of me. I have a husband and a 5 year old daughter. She is the best thing that ever happened to me. After all the death and destruction, I could still experience goodness in the world. I look at my 5 friends and hang my head. I have missed them so much. Everyday the apin strikes deep into my heart but I have slowly learned to lock it away. Angela helps, she's my daughter. In the 10 years I have been gone, their graves have gone mossy green, weeds creep over the inscriptions. Must remember to bring a trowel and scrubbing brush with me next time. You can still make out the names, all the same styles and all ending in the same day.  
  
~**~  
  
Oh my God, that was a day I have wanted to forget but my nightmares haunt me and never let it go. It started like any other day. Gunn and Fred were canoddling on the sofa's in reception, Wesley was sitting in the library, trying to avoid the scene in the lobby, unsuccessfully. I ad been downstairs with the weapons, practising so I could really kick Angel's butt next time we trained. My Warrior was sleeping upstairs - the only reason that Wesley had dared to step foot in the hotel - and Stephen had left earlier on in the day. Like I said, it was like any other normal day, well as normal as A.I got.   
It was about 7pm, the sun was just going down under the horizon of Angel's city when the doors to the hotel burst open. All I heard were Freds screams and Gunns desperate calls for weapons. I bolted upstairs, two broadswords, a crossbow and an axe stlung across my back. Gunn, Fred and Wesley were backing away from 12 huge demons that flanked Lilah Morgen. She knew we were weakest, still divided over Wesley's betrayal and Angel was vurable over his trust in Con..Stephen. It was the worst time for us and the best time for her to strike. The 12 demons were of the Kumal cult, we had been tracking them for weeks after they suddenly appeared in La...now we knew why. Lilah backed up and stayed out of of the fray as the demons advanced towards us. Angel ran down the stairs, his duster on and a sword in his hands, and stared at the demons, his own demon showing through to little effect.  
The battle wasn't quick, exhaustion was claiming us slowly. I left 3 demons to the team as I went after Lilah. The bitch had crossed us once to often and now it had to stop. The noise behind me stopped as one demon fled the hotel and into the dark. My gaze didn't move from Lilah. She sneered at me, laughing at nothing in particular, or maybe at her own victory.  
  
"Aren't you going to see if your friends are OK?" she muttered as my demon kept her pinned to the wall.  
  
To this day I wish I han't turned around, I wish I hadn't went after Lilah, stayed with my friends, my family. The carnage was hidious. Fred had been thrown against a wall like a ragdoll, now slumped on the the floor, her head lying at an unntaural angle, eyes wide in terror. Gunn lay on the floor beside her, his own axe buried deep into his back, it was unreal; like a horror movie. Wesley simplyly looked like he was sleeping in peace except for the angle of his spine and nexck, both broken clean in two. I frantically looked around for my Angel but I couldn't see him anywhere until I saw his sword lying in a pile of demon goo, a small pile of dust lying a little way away from where he had removed his duster. That was all that remiained of my best friend. my heart crumbled as a Lilah chuckled in my ear. I turned to her, holding her in place as I took her own Glock 9mm from her cold hand.  
  
"You wouldn't kill a Human Cordy. You're too good to do that." She stated coolly.  
I let go of her, keeping the Glock pointed at her chest. I can rmember saying to her ."You don't qualify as Human." before I fired two shots into her knees and one to her abdominal area. and let her go with , "I hope it hurts."   
  
I felt so detached. I left Lilah as I heard footsteps enter through what was left of the hotel doors. Stephen stood in the dark, horror on his face at what I had done but satifaction at Angels remains.   
  
"Angelus is dead at last." Stephen sneered.  
  
I turned angrily to Angel's son. "No Angel, your father, is dead. You did this!" I shouted at the stone-like figure in front of me.  
  
"He killed my father and his family. Thousands died at the hands of him. The monster had to die." He shouted back at me.  
  
"Justine killed Holtz. Angel was your father and now you have killed him and his family. Jeez, you're no better than Angelus. You have the blood of 4 innocent people on your hands. Angel didn't kill your family, Angelus did. They're two diffrenet things."  
  
Stephen seemed to look at the carnage and fleed. The LAPDtracfked me down three hours later to tell me that Stephen had been found at the bottom of cliffs on the Pacific Highway. Suicide.  
  
~**~  
  
So I stood in St. Mary's cemetery and buried 4 people and an urn of ashes, the people I loved. my Family. I was alone in saying goodbye to the only peoplethat might have made me feel complete. How Angela now fills that void.  
  
The hotel blew up in a mysterious 'gas' explosion. I just couldn't bear to think of a place so fill of tragedy still standing. LA lost a listed building and I lost the will to live. Then I met Richard, who showed me the rose in the concrete world.  
  
I still have the delusion that one day there will be a knock at the door of my Beverly Hills home and I will open it to find Gunns sacrcastic face asking 'where ya been?', Fred nervously tapping her foor, Wesley's treasured face, Conner - as I buried him - dressed in normal clothes and my Angels chocolate eyes staring back at me as if he never left. I take one more look at their gravestones. I know i'll be back, I owe it to them.  
  
Winifred Burkle   
1979 - 2002  
A smart and gallent friend   
who never let you down.  
  
Charles Gunn  
1982 - 2002  
A Sharp man with a  
sharper wit, I'll never  
forget you.  
  
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce  
1975 - 2002  
My trusted, loyal friend who  
will be forever in my heart.  
  
Connor Kearly  
Feb 2002 - Nov 2002  
The Son I'll never have and  
will never know. You have my   
love always.  
  
Angel Kearly  
1726 - 2002  
My Warrior, best friend  
and protector. Your void  
can never be filled.  
  
~~~~******~~~~  
  
Part of a group of stories I wrote at uni but thought they sucked majorly. All will be published under a title called Uni Stories...orginal! Tell me what you think.  
Nutty 


End file.
